Lunsford: Georgia Southern ‘putting emphasis on football intelligence this spring’

Travis Jaudon @JaudonSportsSMN

Tuesday

Feb 19, 2019 at 9:22 PMFeb 20, 2019 at 9:44 AM

STATESBORO — Through the first three practices of the spring, the Georgia Southern football team is already showing signs of benefiting from a year under Chad Lunsford, which saw the team finish 10-3 with the school’s second-ever bowl victory to cap it off.

“We’ve gotten off to a good start this year,” Lunsford said before Tuesday’s fourth of 15 spring practices. “Our guys are just a lot more confident than they were a year ago at this time. We’ve really been putting a lot of emphasis on football intelligence this spring as far as trying to be better in different situations and things like that.”

Lunsford said the idea of becoming a generally more intelligent football team comes with the program's growth. In 2018, year one of Lunsford’s full-time status as GS head coach, the Eagles were focused on bouncing back from a 2-10 campaign and weren’t able to spend as much time on the finer details of the game.

“I think (football intelligence) is something you can teach,” Lunsford said. “We were heavy into it last year, too. But this year, with more experience and a lot of our guys who played last year returning, that’ll help them with this stuff.

By losing 2018 offensive line starters Curtis Rainey (center) and Jeremiah Culbreth (left tackle) to graduation, the Eagles are searching for answers at the two open spots. Lunsford said redshirt senior Jakob Cooper, who started a majority of the 2018 snaps at right guard, has been solid at a few spots on the O-line in the early days of spring ball.

“(Cooper) is a guy on the offensive line who has kind of stepped up,” Lunsford said. “He’s been a guy who did some things for us last year and he’s been showing a little bit of versatility playing some center and playing some guard.”

Lunsford also mentioned redshirt sophomore Caleb Kelly and true freshman Javonte McGriff (Thomasville HS) as standouts from the first three practices.

Who’s back

at running back?

Maybe the biggest question facing the Eagles coming into the 2019 season: Who will win the starting running back job after the departure of graduated 2018 leaders Wesley Fields and Monteo Garrett?

For now, it sounds like the leaders for the gig are rising junior Wesley Kennedy III (a Savannah native and Benedictine graduate) and sophomore Logan Wright. With the Bob DeBesse shotgun-style option offense, multiple running backs will play meaningful snaps, often at the same time. The position’s third and fourth guys on the depth chart coming out of spring will matter more than at other spots on the field.

“(Kennedy and Wright) are probably a little bit further ahead than everybody else,” Lunsford said. “But, (Matt) ‘Speedy’ LaRoche, Grant Walker and Jared Daniels, those are guys who are working hard and pushing those guys to get a shot.”

Lunsford also complimented the progress of redshirt freshman Andrew Cunningham, who suffered a knee injury late in his senior season of high school before sitting out last year’s GS campaign as a redshirt.

“He’s a guy who’s still trying to find his way after that ACL injury,” Lunsford said.

“We are really excited about the guys we got at mid-year, Gerald Green and J.D. King. Those guys have really shown glimpses of why we wanted to get them here, but again, they’re behind other guys because they just haven’t been here long.”

Green is a 2019 consensus three-star recruit from Columbus and East Coweta High School.

Transfers

King is a Fitzgerald native and a junior transfer from Oklahoma State. He won’t be eligible for playing as an Eagle until the 2020 season after redshirting this year. Defensive end Justin Ellis, a 2018 transfer from Syracuse, has been praised of late for his abilities as an edge rusher. On Saturday, he was selected as the 2018 scout team defensive player of the year at the team’s awards banquet and gala.

“We’re starting to find out a little more about Justin Ellis,” Lunsford said. “He’s a guy we have really high hopes for this year on the defensive line.”

Travis Jaudon is a sports reporter for the Savannah Morning News covering Georgia Southern athletics. Follow him on Twitter @JaudonSports.

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